Piece of Cake | Ashton Irwin [au]

Nine

Ruth’s POV

I press the tape gun directly over the crease of the cardboard box and slide it over until sealing it tightly and labeling it with a black marker, “Random Shit.” I lift the no-so-heavy box and stack it on top of one of the other boxes that sits around the naked bed in my room before hopping of top of it and taking a seat. I look around the almost barren room and take in the fact that I have to live alone now.

I’ve been living with Serena ever since I got out of college and when she finished her homeschooling and now I’m being kicked out. Lovely.

“You know, when we told you that you need to move out, we didn’t mean a week later,” Calum chuckles in the doorway to my room.

“Well, you did say that you wanted me out as soon as possible and I did just that.”

After leaving Ashton’s apartment on Thursday, I went straight over to the landlord’s office and talked to Jeff, the owner of the apartment complex, and asked to see if I could get a hold of the soon-to-be vacant room. Apparently, he had just finished putting it up on the market so I was literally first in line to jump at getting it. If that’s not luck then I don’t know what is.

All it took was a few signatures and putting down a deposit and the place was mine. During the weekend, the couple that lived there finished clearing everything out and the apartment was cleaned and prepped for my arrival.

“I’m beginning to rethink this whole ‘moving out’ thing,” Serena pops her head out from behind Calum before shoving him out of the way and dashing over to the boxes where she jumps onto the one next to me and takes a seat.

“Now that I’m all packed, you choose to rethink things,” I giggle at my pouting best friend as she kicks her legs back in forth in the air. I’ve always been by her side since we were little so to have to leave like this must be hurting her. At least I’m only going to be about fifteen minutes away, so when she needs to vent about Calum being stupid like she always does, I won’t be that far. “You know, you can always move in with me and we can just leave Cal here,” I suggest.

“I’d be all up for that except I have to marry his ass in like three months so I can’t really leave him right now,” she huffs. “Stupid commitment.”

“Love you too, Ser,” Calum teases, grinning so hard that the corners of his eyes are creasing. He’s so good for her. If it weren’t for my brother, they would have never met, and as I’ve watched them grow as a couple over the years, I don’t know how either of their lives would have turned out if they didn’t meet.

“You’ll be fine,” I pat her shoulder. “I’m not leaving the country, just down a few blocks. And Ashton and Michael are living in my complex so if anything happens to me you can blame them and hopefully get even more of a discount on your cake.”

“Wait, Ashton lives there too?” Oh crap. I forgot to tell her. She knows that Michael lives there, but I never mentioned Ashton being my neighbor. She still doesn’t know that I’ve been talking to him since last week either. Or that I’m getting free desserts from him. And the Bad Friend Award goes to…

“Yeah, he lives two doors down from my place,” I reveal and she only nods. Why does she have a problem with Michael, but not Ashton? She hounds me down and gets protective when Michael talked to me in the kitchen last week, but when I mention that Ashton is living down the hall from me, it doesn’t faze her. I don’t understand.

She hops off the boxes and straightens out her red dress. “Maybe you’ll learn a thing or two about baking now that you’ll be living near him,” she jokes, but there is a hint of seriousness in her tone.